


Blood of the Covenant

by DragontheDragon



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternia, Ancestors, Gamzee Makara and Karkat Vantas Moirallegiance, Homestuck - Freeform, Homestuck Ancestors, Multi, No Game AU, Warning for blood and mentions of death/dead characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-07
Updated: 2015-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-16 17:46:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3497258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragontheDragon/pseuds/DragontheDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He slipped his hands through the iron shackles and shivered. The metal against his bare skin was colder than ice, unsurprising,considering the low temperature of the environment around him, but for some reason, Karkat has expected them to be hot to the touch.Perhaps the stories he'd been told were still rattling around his brain, filling it with stupid ideas and expectations. Of course they wouldn't be hot- it was ridiculous to think they still would be. They probably hadn't been any where near "warm" in hundreds of sweeps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Phantoms and Shackles

He slipped his hands through the iron shackles and shivered. The metal against his bare skin was colder than ice, unsurprising,considering the low temperature of the environment around him, but for some reason, Karkat has expected them to be hot to the touch.Perhaps the stories he'd been told were still rattling around his brain, filling it with stupid ideas and expectations. Of course they wouldn't be hot- it was ridiculous to think they still would be. They probably hadn't been any where near "warm" in hundreds of sweeps.

The dissapointingly, but luckily,cold handcuffs still fascinated him none the less.If everything really was true.. if this worked..The young troll slipped one hand out, then slipped it back through. His hands must have been much smaller than the troll that these had been made for. No wonder, considering he had been much older than the nine sweep old who now stood around the dust and ruin that had once been the sight of a horrendous crime. The execution of the Signless Sufferer should never have happened, if the universe had been the kind and just place the fool had believed it to be. Karkat knew better than to think that. The universe was anything but kind or just. It was cruel and unfair. This was the universe where blood mattered more than anything- the universe where the color of his blood would get him slaughtered quicker than he could shout "FUCK SHIT FUCK" to himself.

The young mutant stood there, gazing at the wethered surface of metal no one had ever bothered to polish. He noticed something was dried onto the inside of them and pulled his hands out. Some of it had rubbed off on his wrists, and his stomach tossed as he inspected the substance. Old as it was, there was no mistaking it. That was burned, long dried, candy red blood. The same color as Karkat's and just as illegal. He'd never seen that shade, darkened as it was from heat and time, from a source that was not him. He'd known for awhile now that he was not the first person to bare this color. He was not even the only person alive with it, supposedly- if certain people were to be believed. But the sight scared him. Karkat had spent all nine sweeps of his miserable life terrified of his own brightly colored blood- no matter who it came from, the sight would never not give him a fright.

It was the blood that managed to drag his eyes away from the item that had given him a symbol to wear. He eyes, same color as his blood, fell to his companion, standing- or rather, floating- amongst the ancient grounds of execution, abandoned like so many other places when the adults had been banished from Alternia.

His companion's name was Aradia, and she had not been alive in quite sometime. The ghostly girl went about her business in the center of the place, lighting candles in a circle as best she could. She couldn't physically interact with objects, so it was all done with her mind. Karkat sort of wondered if that was hard- but he didn't ask. Just like he hadn't asked how she'd died, or how he could see her. There were a lot of questions he would have loved to ask his old friend, but the troll had long stopped being easy to question, or to talk to at all. Now at least he knew WHY she'd changed so goddamned much. No one, excluding the people involved with the incident, had really known what had happened to make her change like that.

Aradia's head turned to return his gaze, and he felt a shiver run down his spine at her empty-eyed, expresionless stare. That was a stare that could see things Karkat didn't want seen. " I'm almost done." She said, her voice as devoid of emotion as her face was.It was disturbing to say the least. She used to be so full of life, despite how much death interested her. Now, dead as the things she used to get so creepily excited about, Aradia was hardly more than a shadow of the girl she'd been three sweeps before. Not for the first time, he wished there was a way to bring back the dead.

"Oh, okay, cool... do you ..uh..need these yet?" Karkat choked out, looking as unsettled as he felt. It wasn't just the ghost the made him uneasy either- there was something about these ruins that made him want to leave. To get as far away as he possibly could. Maybe it was all the death that clung to the place, or maybe it was Karkat being a paranoid little shithead again. Or both. Probably both.

The see-through figure nodded, her gaze turning back to the ring of candles below her. Her hair seemed to blow in a non-existent breeze, the nubby troll noticed as he neared her and carefully stepped into the circle,holding, but no longer wearing, the iron cuffs that had once tortured the very man Karkat needed desperately to talk to. Aradia lowered herself so her feet appeared to touch the ground. Even with three sweeps of growth on her, the mutant was not much taller than the girl.

" Are you ready?" Her hollow voice asked, disturbing white eyes meeting his. " Once we begin we can not stop until we are done. Do you understand?" Karkat nodded, swallowing all his fear and unease. This had to be done, and it had to work. Not just for his sake, but for the sake of their people,and for the sake of an entire planet full of people that were very much NOT theirs.

"Yeah, i get it, you explained everything already! Let's just get on with it, okay?!" He replied, their eyes still locked. He wanted to get this over with. Whatever happened was going to happen. The metal in his hands lifted up and hovered between them, and Aradia's hands, smaller than his and significantly less tangible, hovered above his as he outstretched them.

She began chanting in a language that Karkat did not recognize. It was not Alternian, nor any other form of language he had encountered. It sounded like gibberish. But ancient, powerful gibberish. His hair stood on end as the circle of candles became the only part of the world that mattered. The universe that existed outside of the ring seemed to almost cease existing, at least to the two trolls inside of it. Aradia kept on chanting, face as blank as ever. In between them, the shackles began to glow, and he get feel heat radiating off of them. This was where he came in.

As his friend's voice droned on, growing loud or quiet in no discernible pattern, Karkat carefully pulled his hands away from Aradia's and pulled out a knife. This went against every instinct the boy had ever developed. When the sight of your blood could lead to instant culling, you learned to avoid injury at any cost. But here, that was exactly what was needed from him. He sliced the palm of his hand, quickly, and didn't dare break the stare between he and his companion as he winced. The bright red blood slid down his hand and dripped onto the similarly red iron between the two lowbloods, letting out a hiss that was barely audible as Aradia practically screamed a few lines of whatever garbled language she was speaking.

Smoke- or at least, it appeared to be smoke, began to form around the shackles. Karkat dropped the knife and moved his hands back to their previous position,blood just as deadly for him as the knife dripping to the dirt below.

The girl's chanting picked up pace as the smoke began to rise and take on a shape, as wind began to pick up around them, making Karkat feel dizzy. He couldn't tell what was forming between them as he stared into the depth of Aradia's empty, lifeless eyes. He could only hope what they were doing was, in fact, working. It felt like it was- but if they somehow fucked up, or summoned the wrong thing..

The girl's chanting stopped abruptly, leaving silence to fill its place. The lit candles around them went out, and the wind that had been blowing stopped just as suddenly. Karkat was forced to break eye contact with Aradia as well- for between them stood the first adult troll either of them had ever seen- and one that had been dead for hundreds of sweeps, at that.

The troll was looking right at Karkat, a look of confusion on the smokey figures face. The apparition looked even more ghostly than Aradia, like he was made entirely out of mist, instead of merely looking as if he wasn't quite all there. Also unlike Aradia was his face- his eyes looked how Karkat guessed they had in life, and his features immediately seemed to convey more emotion than the girl's had in sweeps. But what confused the man and relieved the boy was not how the two dead trolls differed in appearance, but how the one bound in red hot shackles and the short nine sweep old were alike.

They looked practically identical, save for their difference in age and alive-ness. Karkat had expected, had hoped to see someone that looked like him, but it was still.. so incredibly weird. Trolls never met those they were related to. Looking so much like another person was a completely foreign concept to them. But it was impossible to deny the similarities. The apparition had the same horns as him, the same face shape. Their hair was the same, eternally messy with no hope and no need for it to be fixed. They had the same NOSE for fucks sake- but really got both were the eyes. Both shared those abnormally bright red eyes. Studying Karkat rapidly, as if the adult was trying to in take as much of the boy in as he could, as if he never wanted to unsee what was in front of him, the troll know as the Signless in life and the Sufferer in death, spoke.

" Who.. who are you?!" Even the troll's voice was similar to his, Karkat realized, although it was.. softer. Less abrasive and more welcoming. He'd wondered how a voice like his could possibly move people to revolt against the hemospectrum- it had seemed impossible- and now he had his answer. That was the voice of a guy who could find the words to get trolls to move mountains, to do anything that it asked.He wondered if it had been even better to hear when the Sufferer had been alive, for as a ghost it sounded distant, and it echoed. It reminded Karkat of the sort of effects that were sometimes used in movies when a main character was remembering something that was once said to them.

The boy raised his hand to show the adult the color of his blood as it made its way out of the cut he'd made. It was something that Karkat had never, not in a million sweeps, not even if he'd lost all his marbles or completed his metamorphoses into a complete imbecile- not even then would have even dared show another person his blood. But this was different. Karkat knew, without a doubt, that this troll shared that blood with him.Sounding more sure of himself than he felt, the mutant answered the ghost's question. " I'm Karkat Vantas-you're descendant."


	2. Troll-Subway: Beat Your Peers To Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "shut up karkat."  
> \- Everyone at some point, probably

The air felt like it was thick with ash as the mutants locked eyes, the molten hot shackles around the elder's wrists the only thing between them. Karkat struggled to remember how to inhale as he watched his ancestor process the bright scarlet blood as it leaked from his palm. This had to be enough to convince the ancient memory of a once great leader of who he was- it had to be enough to make the adult want to help the shrimp-y, loudmouthed slip of a boy. If it wasn't... then nothing would be. Karkat already knew that he alone would never be good enough to.. to convince someone like the Sufferer to help him. Time seemed to have no meaning anymore,for  the silence between the occupants of the summoning circle seemed to last for a lifetime. The longer his proclamation of his heritage hung in the air the more he couldn't stand it, until finally Karkat had no choice in the matter. Someone's voice needed to fill the void.

 

" Okay, look, whether you believe me or not, that's your own goddamn choice, i don't care, but please- I've heard the stories they tell about you, stories that could get anyone  who heard them culled just for knowing that they existed AT /ALL/ let alone for reading them- All you ever worked for was the freedom of trolls and.. now i'm.. and everything is.." How did he explain everything? The messages? His friends? The war? Where did he even start? Karkat had all of this planned out, but now any form of plan that the troll had had had been lost to the vast emptiness of brain that he regarded to be filled more with stupidity than with useful knowledge and functionality. "Look, i need help, okay? i have no idea what to do, but everyone expects me to do SOMETHING because you had to go and give me your blood and your hair and your stupid, tiny horns! Everything is going to shit and even if people weren't forcing me to, i would probably still get the grand idea to try and help people and i don't know how to do that! i know you're probably confused but its your fault that i'm here and so you've got to fix this! What do i do? How do I help save people who don't know that need to be fucking saved, and how do i stop a fucking WAR?!"

 

Aradia drifted behind the boy, ranting and begging for his ancestor for some sliver of a direction, an arrow to point him towards a slim chance at victory- or anything really, that will mean that he and his friends wouldn't die in horrible, gruesome battles and cullings. Karkat could feel the creepy chill that he'd learned to associate with the girl. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as he looked up at the other dead troll, eyes watering, hands outstretched as if the help he so desperately needed could simply be handed to him. The apparition blinked, and gave an apologetic frown.

 

The hot irons drifted nearer to Karkat as the wrists they were bound to tried to reach out, to touch the young boy that wanted some sort of guidance from him. " I am so.. very.. sorry. I never meant.." The strange emptiness of the surroundings were suddenly a blessing, as Karkat realized that the phantom's voice, while powerful.. was very quiet as a result of its odd distance. "I failed Alternia...trolls.. you. You should never have needed to bear this burden.. but..." the figure sighed, hands dropping. " If you must.."

 

For once Karkat found it hard to find words to interrupt with. He wanted to hold on to every word his ancestor said. Any little thing might help him survive a few more days in this miserable excuse for a universe. " the truth is that there is no answer to your question, Karkat. You need to help trolls realize that.. this isn't the way the world is supposed to be- but how you do that..is for you to figure out...only the strength of the people will stop a war."

 

That... was a fucking cop out. Karkat was about to say so, in much more vulgar terms- but between them flashed, quickly, the image of a clock. They only had a minute left to talk. Fuck! What did he do- what did he say? "But how am I supposed to do that? How do i figure out how to do /anything/! No one besides you has ever done this before, not peacefully anyway! There isn't a fucking guide that i can read, just a bunch of shitty stories that some trolls on the internet gave me-please, there has to be something you can tell me?" Karkat asked, desperation overpowering frustration. He just wanted help. Why was that so hard to get?

 

The ghost furrowed his eyebrows. Karkat stared at him, waiting for him to give him some sort of answer. There wasn't a lot of time left for him to give it. " There.. might be."

 

"What? Might be what??"

 

"Might be.. a guide..my Disciple.. if her stories are not the ones you read.. she documented our journey, my sermons.. if you could find it, it may help you.. but.. there is no telling where her book is.. or if it still intact..i'm sorry i-"

 

He was cut off as wind swirled around them once again. It took less than an instant for the ghost to fade, so distant had he been already. Iron shackles fell to the ground with a thud,all heat gone from them. Karkat fell to his knees, shaking. That was no help at all! He didn't have time to search Alternia for some dumb book that might not have made it through the hundreds of sweeps since his ancestors disciple had been alive! He still had no idea what to do, or how to do it! Fuck! He punched the ground, wanting to scream. Aradia did nothing to comfort or calm him. The girl simply collected the burned out candles and the shackles with her abilities and looked towards the night sky above them. "When you are done overreacting we should go.It is not safe."

 

\--

 

Karkat shifted his weight, trying to make himself comfortable on his portion of cold, grimy bench. He, like any sane minded person, absolutely despised public transportation. It was gross, and it was dangerous. He was fortunate to have gotten on a fairly empty car. The more crowded ones were nearly always filled with hormone crazed trolls taking out their unstable blood lust on those lower than them on the hemospectrum. The troll-metro was like bloodbath roulette, and for someone like Karkat, it was one of the most dangerous places to be on Alternia.

 

The boy would never even consider getting on the deathtrap, but his current residence and the site of the Sufferer's demise weren't even in the same country. This was the quickest way to get there. Karkat had hoped it would be worth the risk, but it wasn't. It was a waste of his time, his luck, and his spirit, which was shattered into a thousand pieces. The one person he'd thought might be able to offer him guidance, insight- SOMETHING.. had been just as much of an idiot as the mutant considered himself. Served him right, for thinking he could be related to anyone worth talking to. He wondered if it would matter if he died now. He was lost and confused and all his friends were going to end up dead some way or another. Even if they managed to escape the ships coming to remove everyone of age from Alternia... they'd be shot out of the sky, or caught..or end up getting lost in the depths of space and dying of starvation.

 

His hands balled up into fists in his pockets, one of which was bandaged and would remain firmly inside his pocket until he and Aradia got back. The maroonblood floated around nearby, looking bored as she inspected bloodstains on the floor. Karkat had figured out quickly that she only appeared to who she wanted to appear to, so he couldn't exactly talk to her, at least not without looking like he was crazy. He wasn't about to draw attention to himself in a place like this, but he was so bored that even talking to the ghost of his dead friend would have been a step up. He could message one of the numerous other annoyances that had infected him with the strange troll disease " friendship", but half of them he would see soon enough, and honestly didn't want to discuss his failed mission with, and the other half had no idea anything was going on at all. There were, he guessed his... /other/ friends. But it was growing increasingly difficult to get a hold of them. Which made sense, considering they were probably watching everything they'd ever known torn to shreds around them. Plus, timezones were a bitch.

 

As he debated his various choices for keeping boredom at bay, and thinking of all the reasons he didn't want to talk to each on of those reasons, he found his choice in the matter chosen for him, as was signified by the annoying ding of the trollian app on his portable communication device.

 

terminallyCapricous [TC] began trolling carincoGeneticist [CG] 

>

 

TC:HeY My mOsT NuBbY Of bRoS :o)

TC:yOu aCtUaLlY oN Or iS TrOlLiAn aLl uP AnD BeInG A MeRcIlEsS LyInG MoThErFuCkEr?

CG: HI YEAH IM ACTUALLY ON FOR ONCE

CG: IM CURRENTLY ENDURING THE WORST KIND OF TORTURE

CG: THE EVILS OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ARE AWFUL SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE TELEPORTATION MORE ACCESSIBLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC  
CG: SITTING UPON YEARS OF CRUSTY TROLL BLOOD AND FUCK KNOWS WHAT ELSE  
CG: IS NOT SOMETHING I WOULD LIKE TO BE DOING NOW  
CG: OR EVER  


TC: WhAt bE PuShInG YoU InTo tHe cLuTcHeS Of tHe mIrAcLeS ThIs tImE?  


CG: THIS OUTDATED TECHNOLOGY IS NOT A MIRACLE GAMZEE

CG: AND

CG: LIKE AN INCREASINGLY ANNOYING AMOUNT OF THINGS

CG: I CAN'T TELL YOU

TC:  wHy nOt? :o?  


CG: YOU JUST LOVE MAKING ME GIVE YOU THE SAME ANSWER OVER AND OVER AGAIN DON'T YOU?

CG: I CAN'T TELL YOU

CG: IF I COULD I WOULD BUT ITS REALLY NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS AND NOT SOMETHING YOU NEED TO WORRY ABOUT

CG: WHEN I TELL YOU SOMETHING IS SOMETHING I CAN'T TALK ABOUT

CG: IT WOULD SO FUCKING CONVENIENT FOR ME IF FOR ONCE YOU ACTUALLY LISTENED TO THAT INSTEAD OF GOING ON TO FUCKING INTERROGATE ME

CG:LIKE I HAVE COMMITTED SOME HORRIBLE CRIME AND YOU ARE THE TROLLCOP TRYING TO BEAT THE TRUTH OUT OF ME

CG: THE ANSWER IS ALWAYS GOING TO BE I CAN'T TELL YOU

CG: FOR YOUR SAKE AS MUCH  AS FOR MINE

TC:I'M PiCkInG Up wHaT YoU Be pUtTiNg dOwN KaR   
TC:BuT DaMn iF It dOnT WoUnD A BrOtHeR   


TC:lAtElY YoU BeEn sO DiStAnCe aNd sTrEsSeD

TC: CaN'T HeLp bUt bE AlL WoRrYiNg wHaT MoThErFuCkInG ShIt yOu bE DeAlInG WiTh  
TC: sHiT YoU CaN'T EvEn bE TeLlIn yOuR OwN MoIrAiLo(

CG: DO NOT PLAY THE PALE CARD GAMZEE

CG: THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH QUADRANTS

CG: I DONT KNOW WHY BUT FOR SOME MISGUIDED REASON I THOUGHT THAT MAYBE YOU MIGHT BE SMART ENOUGH TO RECOGNIZE THAT

TC: iS It a fUcKiNg cRiMe tO WaNnA SeE A SmIlE On tHe fAcE Of mY BeSt mOtHeRfUcK?

CG: YOU JUST WANT TO PACIFY ME    
CG : WHICH IS THE FARTHEST THING FROM WHAT I WANT RIGHT NOW

CG: THE FLAMES OF MY ETERNAL RAGE ARE ALL I HAVE GOING FOR ME

CG: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PUT THEM OUT

TC: YoU KeEp oN TaLkInG BoUt rHyThM ThAt i aIn’T AlReAdY In tHe kNoW Of aNd tHeN ReFuSe tO LeT A BrOtHeR LeArN ThE BeAt   
CG: SORRY MY LIFE IS A CLUSTERFUCK OF HECTIC HOOFBEAST DIARRHEA  OF THE SQUIRTIEST DEGREE AT THE MOMENT

CG: YOU ARE PERFECTLY WELCOME TO JUST CEASE COMMUNICATION WITH ME  IF IT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL SLIGHTLY LESS INSANE THAN USUAL

CG: IF YOU WANT TO CONTINUE TO SPEAK WITH ME THOUGH  
CG:YOU ARE JUST GOING TO HAVE TO PUT UP WITH ALL OF SECRETS AND CRYPTIC MESSAGES

CG:NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT

CG:SHIT

CG: GOT TO GO

 

carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased trolling terminallyCapricous [TC]

 

TC:WaIt kArKaT

TC: fUcK, mAn  


TC: :,o(

 

While Karkat had been busy yelling at his moirail about a situation that neither boy had any control over, several larger, higher-blooded trolls had boarded the train. He didn't like the look they had in their eye. Like killing someone mercilessly on the way to their destination sounded like just the grandest time to them. He lowered his head, made himself look smaller than he already was. The less noticeable he was the better. Let one of the other sorry excuses for living beings that were aboard the train take the beating, because this troll didn't need to deal with that- and what small lowblood could? Especially not one without any sort of psionics to their name. Karkat was nothing compared to four beefy douchebags twice his size. One's hands looked big enough to crush his skull, another had maroon and mustard blood splattered on his pants. Every instinct that the small troll boy had was to get the fuck out of there as fast as he could. But until the next stop, there was no way out of the car. He was trapped, practically waiting for the slaughter.

 

He glanced to Aradia, who returned the look, albite with blank, empty eyes that no one could ever quite get used to. Why hadn't the Sufferer had eyes like that? Karkat wondered, before remembering that now was not the time to think about soul crushing disappointment.

 

"Whatcha' lookin at dirtblood?"

 

"Yeah what are ya looking at??"

 

"Gotta a problem bud?"

 

The highbloods had chosen their prey for that evening. A brown-blooded troll who looked about ready to piss herself in fear.

 

" No problem. Leave me alone, if you don't mind." She replied. Karkat was a little surprised by how confident she sounded for someone who was so afraid.  Of course, confidence just made her more punchable, and that's exactly what the one with the big hands did. BAM. Right to the face. Karkat tried to turn his gaze away, but something kept his eyes there. Watching as the scared but weirdly confident troll got the shit beat out of her for just.. being there. It didn't sit right with him. This was what he- what his ancestor, had been trying to stop! This was.. This was what Karkat wanted to stop. Not just sending people off to fight a war against an innocent, though annoying, civilization. But murder. Outright. Beatings, enslavement, thousands upon thousands of years of nothing but hatred and anger and violence.

 

He'd show them hatred, anger, and violence. "HEY, YOU PIECES OF BADLY DIGESTED SHIT, LEAVE HER ALONE! DIDN'T ANYONE TEACH YOU FUCKING MANNERS?" Somehow he'd stood, balled up  fists on either side of him, looking so incredibly tiny, but broad, and very, very angry. Somehow he'd started shouting. He could feel a tug on his shirt as Aradia tried to convince him not to be a complete and utter buffoon.

 

"Please don't. You're going to get yourself killed." Karkat didn't care. The four trolls dropped the beaten lowblood to the floor to look at the kid who clearly seemed to want a piece of the action.

 

"Hey look, a tough guy!" said the one who's already bloodied clothes had only gotten bloodier.

 

"Bet he thinks he can take us" Laughed another, with a huge mouth full of crooked, jagged teeth.

 

"Look at him, he doesn't even where his blood color on his shirt!" Commented the asshole with the large hands, who leaned down to wipe them on the pummeled troll's shirt.

 

The fourth member of the group,a teal blooded girl, didn't speak at all, but the look in her  eyes was one of pure bloodlust. Karkat gulped, realizing the stupidity of his actions way too late. He drew his sickles from his strife specibus.

 

" Wonder what fugly little color the shrimps cute little body will bleed" Toothy said. Karkat took a step back. He was going to die oh fuck oh FUCK. Only a moment ago he was wondering if it would matter, his probably far too late demise. Now he didn't care whether or not it mattered. Karkat just cared about not finding out at that very second, preferably.

 

One thing that he'd forgotten about, however, was that he was not entirely alone, and that Aradia was actually quite capable to do things on her own. Handsy punched the shorter troll square in the face, and Karkat dropped to the floor, but despite the wound that was surely forming on his face,saw what happened next. All four troublemakers were smashed against the roof of the car at full force. Then they were released, dropping to the ground by the convenience of gravity. Karkat scrambled to his feet and placed himself in front of the troll he'd stood up for, who seemed to be trying to make sense of what the fuck was going on.

 

Karkat's dead companion was not merciful to his would be assailants, however. As they got themselves back on their feet, she tore apart the roof of the troll train's car and chucked them out. All remaining occupants of the car stared upward. "D-did.. you do that?" Asked a voice from behind him.

 

" Um. No. I didn't." He responded, shocked. Aradia looked.. mad. At least, he thought that was the expression on her face. It was the first time he'd seen her express any sort of emotion since she'd died.

 

\--

  
  


The desert was the most annoying place to navigate, even when its more treacherous obstacles only came out in the day time. Aradia, who appeared to Karkat to be in a terrible mood ( or what he assumed was a terrible mood, it was hard to say with her), had quickly grown impatient of his slow pace through the sandy terrain. This had ,much to his protest, lead her to carry him through the air as she flew via creepy dead girl psychic powers.

 

"  I HATE YOU , YOU FILTHY SMUDGE OF GRIME ON THE UNIVERSE'S WINDOW!" He shouted at her as the land moved quickly below him. Karkat would rather still be on the death trap that was public transportation than suffer through THIS. It was humiliating! He already had to go and tell everyone that his mission was a complete and utter failure, that he risked his life for no REASON AT ALL. The only thing he'd learned from his ancestor was to read some book that he had no means of finding, and the only thing he gained was a pair of useless, ancient handcuffs that were stuffed into his sylladex.

 

"shut up karkat."

 

He fumed. This was ridiculous! He wasn't some wiggler that needed to be carried! He was the leader of a currently very small and insignificant rebel faction!! He was important!! How dare she treat him like this!

 

His tantrum lasted until he was dropped the ground in front of the the only hive visible for miles. This was the home of one Kanaya Maryam, and current squatting place of Karkat. After he'd stupidly blown up both his hive and guardian, she'd been kind enough to offer him a place to live. He felt kind of bad that it had sort of been turned into the center of operations for everything, but its remote location made it the safest place for everyone to meet. With their time on Alternia drawing quickly to a close, that meant that now, more than ever, the hive was crowded full of an assortment of their friends.

 

The mutant stared at the door for a moment. He knew everyone was probably in there, waiting for him to *hopefully* arrive in one piece, and with some sort of idea of what the hell he was doing. But he just had a black eye and disappointment. They were going to end up wandering the galaxy and dying.

 

"Well?" Aradia looked at him. " Are you going to go in there or are you going to stare at the the door all night? Do you want me to push you through it? i will do it."

 

He rolled his eyes and grumbled. " NO, thank you, that will NOT be necessary!" Karkat had liked her better when she was in her usual apathetic state. This whole ' Aradia getting annoyed over something or whatever' thing was rubbing him the wrong way. Puffing up his chest and trying to look proud of his stupidly won "battle scar", Karkat pushed open the door to the hive and braced himself for impact.

 

\--

 

Sollux was alone in the front room,  lounging on a chair with his husktop, deeply submerged in the world that the screen before him held. Somehow, despite this emersion, and the fact that he didn't look up, he knew it was Karkat that had decided to invade the personal space that the mustardblood regarded to be pretty much all space in his general vicinity. "thup?" He asked, typing something on the keyboard. " how did that whole ghost thummoning thing work out for you?"

 

"That part actually fucking worked out." Karkat said, walking over and peering over the screen, attempting to get a look at what his friend was working on, but a bony hand swiftly pushed the trolls head away.

 

"Probably becauthe it wath AA's job. would of been a train wreck if you'd done it." Sollux still didn't look at him, but that wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Karkat was used to the asshole being more interested in what he was doing on the screen than any sort of conversation with a real person.

 

"Whatever, forgive me for not being better at ghost shit than the resident spook herself."

 

"You know i am in the room with you." Aradia said from behind him, causing both boys to jump a little. Even Karkat had forgotten she was there.

 

He rolled his eyes at her. "Yeah, we fucking know Megido"

 

"Tho, what part didn't work out?" Sollux said, eyes moving slowly from the ghost of their friend to Karkat. He raised a patchy eyebrow at the mutant's quickly forming black eye.

 

"Many things. You can get details at the same time as everyone else- speaking of fucking which, where are those assholes?"

  
  


Sollux shrugged. "Eh. Around. Vrithka barged in like usual a few hourth ago, i think Kanaya thaid thomething about making Tav thome shirtth?" His eyes traveled back to Araida for a moment,before fixing themselves back on the screen of the husktop. Karkat was always catching the guy look at her like that. He still wasn't clear on what their relationship had been, or what had really happened the night the girl died, but he knew that it bothered Sollux. It probably didn't bother her though, at least not while she was like this.

 

Scratching his head, Karkat sighed. " Alright, i'm calling a meeting so i don't have to answer the same five questions for the next fucking week. I don't have the patience and we have way more IMPORTANT bullshit to be talking about in that time."

 

"Thpeaking of which, i got a reply."

 

He'd been turning away, but that made the small troll freeze. " What?!"

 

Sollux turned his husktop around to display a trollian log to the two redblooded trolls before him. Karkat skimmed the message. "Well.. fuck.We'll talk about that at the meeting too."

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: fixed the pesterlogs!


End file.
